Bhubaneswar, Oct. 1: A group of eight trek enthusiasts from the city are all set to embark on an expedition to Roop Kund in the Garhwal Himalayan region of Uttarakhand from October 4.

The team is headed by Susanta Das, an adventure sports mentor and wildlife enthusiast. There are three women in the team. They will start their 'Mission Roop Kund' journey from Bhubaneswar tomorrow by boarding a train to Haldwani in Uttarakhand.

'Roop Kund is a glacial lake situated at an altitude of 16,000ft in Chamoli district and is famous for human skeletal remains whose origin is still unknown,' said Das.

Apart from embarking on this adventurous trek, the team will also create awareness on the occasion of wildlife week to keep the Himalayas clean and green and also to preserve the skeletal remains for posterity.

The expedition is being organised by Nature and Wildlife Conservation Society of Odisha (NWCSO) and the Odisha Sport Climbing Association (OSCA). The team members are Swarnalata Dalai, Ranjita Behera, Ananya Mohanty, Durga Madhab Mohapatra, Somanath Khatua, Amrutendu Baral, Ajit Padhi and Susanta Das.

'It is going to be a tough journey. But I hope to be able to complete it,' said Padhi.

The trek enthusiasts of the city have hosted a number of mountaineering expeditions in the last two years. A group of climbers from the state recently scaled Mount Indrasan in Himachal Pradesh. Fifteen adventure-lovers also completed the Biju Patnaik Himalayan Expedition to Mount Rudugaira (19,100ft) in Uttarakhand recently. The team included 12 men and three women aged between 18 and 21 years.

The state government has also taken an initiative to provide youngsters with the opportunity to go on mountaineering expeditions.